Morgan County Communities
LACY CREEK
Lacy Creek is a small tributary of the Licking
River on the southern side of Morgan County. It may be considered as two
communities, since there are two churches, one an Enterprise Baptist church
located on upper Lacy creek, and a Christian Church or Church of Christ on
lower Lacy Creek.. This has not always been so, because for many years the
community center was at the mouth of Contrary Fork where the church house,
used by both of these denominations , and the schoolhouse were located. The
Floress post office was just a little down the road The transcribers
grandparents at one time owned the old schoolhouse after it had been refurbished
in to a house. Some of her fondest memories were of this house. One of the
scariest moments in this house was the long hallway that lead to the basement
of the house. For some reason this area was dark and spooky at night.
And you had to cross the hallway to get to the bedrooms!
The community has produced some great leaders in
the spiritual realm. Among those would be Luke Bolin, who spent part of his
early life on Lacy creek, entered the ministry in his early teens, has done
missionary work for the Church of Crist in Europe, and is now the head of
a large church in Texas. Other religious workers include Elbert Nickell and
Henry Cox, who taught church singing for many years on Lacy Creek ; Tony
and Tooney Easterling , who have been evangelists for the Enterprise Baptist
Church for some time ; and Charley Frederick, who has been a pillar in the
Church of Christ for many years.
Lacy Creek got its name from one of its earliest
settlers, John Lacy. He receieved a deed from the national government for
1,000 acres of land and homesteaded there. He sold his land in smaller tracts
to others, or gave it to his children. So the creek and cemetary were named
for him. Another early settler named Thomas Easterling also took up a homestead
near the mouth of Lacy Creek.
There are three tributaries of Lacy Creek: Pelfrey
Fork, so called because of the people of that name who lived there ; Contrary
Fork, named for two contrary people, Andrew Mullins and Harve Harper who
lived on it ; and Honeymoon Hollow, named by two women whose husbands had
never taken them on a honeymoon trip and decided that the hollow was an ideal
place for a honeymoon.
A grist mill run by water was located near the home
of William T. Easterling, where Vinson Williams now lives.
One of the picturesque and long remembered events
on Lacy Creek was the stir-off on Honeymoon Hollow. This was a social party
when maple syrup was boiled down into sugar. This took the form of a spring
festival.
For many years the religion of Lacy Creek has centered
around two denominations. These are the Enterprise Baptist and the Church
of Christ. Since there is but little difference in the dogma of these two
faiths, there has been very little strife among them. They worship together
often and aid each other in singing and revivals.
The Church of Christ was organized about 1896 on
Pelfrey Fork. Later, it was moved to the mouth of Contrary Fork. A few years
ago it was moved to a fine new building near the mouth of Lacy Creek. Among
the early leaders were Leander Lacy and John Frederick.
The Lacy Creek Church of Enterprise Baptist was
established about 1925. It has always stood near the mouth of Contrary Fork
and has been closely connected with the Elbert Nickell family.
The Floress post office was established in 1899
and named for a woman scoolteacher who had taught on Lacy Creek. The first
postmaster was Georgia Rice.
A one-room school was established on Lacy Creek
in 1890. It was discontinued a few years ago.
Information from Early
Morgan County by Arthur C. Johnson, published in 1974. This information
has been made available thanks to Bernice Johnson (Arthur Johnson's widow)
who gave us permission to use it. The information is still copyrighted.
A big thank you goes to Connie Spurlock for transcribing the information
and to Diana Crace for obtaining permission to post it.
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